CARACAS, July 10 (Itar-Tass) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro confirmed the decision of that country to grant political asylum to former CIA agent Edward Snowden. “We decided to give political asylum to young American Snowden on behalf of independent Venezuela,” Maduro said on Tuesday.
“We, children of Bolivar, are not afraid of the empire,” Maduro, who calls the United States this way following the example of late President Hugo Chavez, said. The decision was taken “despite the fact that Snowden was declared as the enemy number one of the U.S. society.” “What does Snowden know to make the U.S. elite crazy?” the president contemplated.
Last Monday, Maduro noted that Venezuela received a written request from Snowden to grant political asylum to him. “We received a letter with the request to grant political asylum to him, now he should decide, when he will arrive, if he finally decides to fly here,” he noted.
Last week, right three Latin American countries offered political asylum to Snowden. Almost simultaneously with Maduro’s statement Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has made a relevant statement, their Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales joined them on the next day. However, the Nicaraguan president has made a remark that the authorities of the country will grant asylum to the former CIA agent, “if the circumstances allow it.”
Contrary to Ortega, Nicolas Maduro has voiced his unequivocal position. “As the head of the state and government of Venezuela I decided to grant humanitarian asylum to young American Edward Snowden so that he will be able to arrive on the homeland of Bolivar and Chavez, escaping from the manhunt of the United States,” he said. In the view of Maduro, Snowden “did not do anything, except for saying the truth,” after that he was exposed to the chase of “the most powerful empire in the world.”
For his part, the Bolivian president stated that “if this young American, who is chased down by his compatriots, will ask us for asylum, we will grant asylum to him, we are not afraid of anyone.” Morales said with confidence that Snowden “is subject to manhunt, because he stated about the espionage, in which the U.S. is engaged.”
The former agent of the U.S. security services has made his revelations, staying in Hong Kong, from where he flied to Moscow on June 23. On the next day he was expected to go to Cuba from the Russian capital, but did not get onboard the airplane after all. According to some reports, the American is still staying in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport.